To help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems, governments around the world are introducing a new information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions. This is known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and we'd like to help you understand what it means for you.

Under the CRS, we are required to determine where you are "tax resident" (this will usually be where you are liable to pay income or corporate taxes by reason of residence in a jurisdiction). We will base this on information we have already or we may ask you for additional details.

If you are tax resident/paying taxes outside the country / territory where you bank then we may be required to give our local tax authority this information, along with information relating to your accounts. This may then be shared between different countries’ / territories’ tax authorities.

What do you need to do?

Hong Kong will participate in the CRS from 1 January 2017. We will contact you if you are affected and will confirm what you need to do to make sure that we correctly identify where you are tax resident.

If you have any questions regarding your tax residency, please refer to the rules governing tax residence that have been published by each national tax authority. If you have any specific questions regarding your tax residency, please contact a professional tax adviser, as we are unable to provide tax advice. You may also find useful guidance on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD") website.